Top 5 Mistakes Newbie Flippers Make

Property flipping – one of the popular investment strategy in property investment field.

Property flipping is about buy a property at below market value, fix it up and then re-sell it at higher price to make profit. However, property flipping is relatively contain higher risks than buy-to-let investment strategy. The first condition of property flipping is an adequate money on hand as you can’t apply bank loan to finance the purchase, since you’ve gotta sell out the house upon renovation project is completed. The longer your house didn’t sell out, the larger profit you are losing.

Property flipping require a certain knowledge before get involved. You must learn how to avoid the mistakes in the first place as it can save your valuable time and money. Here are the top 5 mistakes newbie flippers frequently make and you must learn how to sidestep these common errors.

1. Not having a set plan

I know many newbie flippers who find a good deal on a house, make an offer, and then they come up with an action plan after they purchase the house. I hate to break it to you, but this is not a smart idea! While I know that finding a good deal is exciting and often hard to pass up, you need to have your investing strategy set in stone before you start buying houses.

Once you know your plan, you’ll be able to tell which homes fit within your plan, and everything will fall into place.

2. Underestimating your repair costs

Unfortunately, this is one of the easiest mistakes you can make as a flipper. When starting out, most flippers have very little idea how much renovating a property will actually cost, and they end up budgeting a random amount.

I’ll be the first to admit that accurately estimating repair costs is not easy.. More often than not, you won’t see repairs or know about them until you actually start renovating. If you don’t plan for these hidden repairs in your budget from the get-go, it can be really frustrating having to scrounge up extra money to finish your project.

I recommend working with a contractor when estimating repair costs, as they will be able to get a much more accurate estimate than you will.

3. Listing your finished flip too high

After investing countless hours, and a large chunk of money, you’ll obviously want to sell your flip quickly so you can make a profit on your hard work. But if your flip ends up going over budget, takes longer to complete than planned, or makes less money than you were expecting, you could be tempted to list the house for more than you can easily sell it for.

If your flip sits on the market for more than a month, people will begin to wonder what’s wrong with it, and then it will be impossible to sell. You may end up losing money because you can’t get rid of the house.

When deciding on a listing price, compare your flip with comps in the area and base your price on them, even if it means losing money.

4. Hoping to get rich quick

Flipping is not a get-rich-quick scheme. As with any other form of long-term investing, it takes time and patience — and in this case, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Many newbie flippers begin flipping houses with the hopes of making a profit easily and quickly, only to find out that it requires way more time and money than they had anticipated.

Avoid falling into the trap of hoping you’ll get rich quick through real estate investing by making sure it’s something you actually want to dedicate a lot of time, money, and hard work to — before you start.

5. Doing everything by yourself

Many flippers think they can do everything on their own, but one of the keys to being a successful flipper is having a team of experts to help you along the way. I recommend that you start with a real estate agent, home inspector, appraiser, lender, attorney, and a contractor on your team, and then expand once you get your business going.

Starting out with essential team members will help things run more smoothly, and will prevent you from taking on everything by yourself.

Investing can be simple but never easy. Besides of knowledge, negotiation is a key in property investment field. You want to get the best deal, you must negotiate for it. Especially in property flipping, you’ll need to take on this skill from buying a house to sell out a house at expected price. In addition, learn how to avoid making these mistakes from the beginning and you’ll be on your way to flipping success before you know it!